Interviews: Pandie Suicide, Creator of Massacre!

Pandie Suicide talks to The Sleuth about horror and her new short film, Massacre!

TMS: So, you got your career started with the infamous Suicide Girls
website. How did that happen and how did that lead to you involvement in tv and
movies? Which do you prefer?

PS: I became an official Suicide Girl in 2005 when I was still living
back home in New Zealand. It was a wonderful experience and I feel so grateful
and lucky to be part of such a community of badass babes, and while I'm sure it
has definitely helped in some specific instances, they were kind of two paths
that I forged together. I was already studying media and film at university
when I became a model for suicidegirls.com and had made some films in high
school as well as taking screenwriting courses and dabbling with acting among
other things. So I think of both as threads of the same thing that come from
the same place and I love both modelling for Suicide Girls and other projects,
and writing/ creating/ acting for television and film pretty equally and feel
incredibly lucky that I get to do both! I have been focusing a lot more on my
acting career lately though, and also writing and producing my own projects a
lot more actively.

TMS: What was your first onscreen experience like and where do you
see yourself ten years from now? Scream Queen or mainstream princess? We think
we know the answer…..

PS: How about Mainstream Scream Queen Princess? Ha! I actually have
played a few roles lately more on the comedy and/or drama side as well as
horror so I would like to think I'm not just a one trick pony, but I really do
have a great, deep love for the genre of horror so I definitely hope to see a
lot of bloody horror credits on my IMDB page in ten years!

TMS: Who is your favorite horror starlet and why? How does she
influence you? Also, what would you say your favorite genre entry is?

PS: I love slasher flicks the most out of all I think. For some reason I
just have this morbid fascination with blood. Cover me in it or show it
everywhere on TV and I'm so happy. Throw in a little violence and it's even
better! I do like a good vampire film too though and lots of other genres. In terms of horror starlets, I absolutely
love Vera Farmiga’s performances as Norma Bates in the television show Bates
Motel. I think she’s so great in that show (as of course is Freddie Highmore
as Norman). Katherine Isabelle and Tristan Risk are both wonderful in the Soska
Sisters’ American Mary. I have a bit of a thing for serial killer flicks, can
you tell? Also Jamie Lee Curtis, Linda Blair, Barbara Steele, Janet Leigh,
Marilyn Burns, Rose McGowan, there are so many great horror actresses I wish I
could just list them all!

TMS: How would you describe the differences in working in front of
the camera as a model for a huge website like Suicide Girls or having to act
while someone is filming you? Are they actually two different worlds or do they
go hand in hand?

PS: Modeling and acting are two things which I think both come from the
same place but definitely involve some slightly different skill sets, though I
think doing one enriches the other! I have done quite a lot of music videos
which I think is like the crossover point where modeling and acting intersect
a lot of times, though some music videos are really involved with story lines
and dialogue and become like short films themselves these days which is an interesting
evolution in the art form of the music video.

TMS: We hear you had some involvement working on Joe Dante’s latest
film, Burying the Ex. How was that experience and what did you take away from
it?

PS: That was just a brief little thing but it was a lot of fun and of
course a great experience as Joe Dante is a very talented director, so it was a
wonderful learning experience having the opportunity to watch him work.
Incidentally I ran into London May (who also plays bass/ guitar in Glenn
Danzig's Samhain) on the set there which was cool, and he later ended up
playing 'The Detective' in my film Massacre!

TMS: You’ve got your own short horror project, Massacre coming up.
What can you tell us about the movie and when can we plan to see it?

PS: We shot Massacre in December of last year in Los Angeles and just
recently completed it with most of the post production being done back home in
New Zealand, with special thanks to the wonderful Jamie Selkirk who oversaw all
our post-production for us there. The film was directed by Erik Boccio, he is a
great director, I think you'll see some awesome work in horror from him in the
future so definitely keep an eye out. He directed Pussy Riot’s music video for
‘Putin Lights Up the Fires’ and has directed a ton of videos for FunnyorDie.com under the moniker
‘WeirdFellas.’ The story of the film is: A girl wakes up at the site of a
bloody mass murder and can’t remember what happened’. It stars a few rockstars
- Billy Morrison who plays guitar in Billy Morrison and has appeared as an
actor in all kinds of things including on one of my favourite shows - Californication. London May who is in Glen Danzig’s horror punk band
‘Samhain’ and an equally talented actor and then myself as Marianne James, the
girl who wakes up and finds that everyone else is dead! We have a cameo
appearance from Jeff Hilliard, Katey Foley and several others including Jeordie
White, who you may know from his appearances in David Lynch’s Lost Highway and more and from playing in Marilyn Manson, and Rob Patterson who played
guitar in Korn previously. Jeordie and Rob also co-wrote the music for the
film. I was so stoked to have them write the music. They did such an amazing job
of it. The film actually just won an award for its soundtrack at the
Fantasmagorical Film Festival in August which was its world premiere. This
month (September), the film is playing at the Horror Hound Weekend in
Indianapolis and we have more festival dates TBA shortly after that! We’re also
working on the possibility of a digital release after our festival run.

TMS: While scrolling through your IMDB page, we see you have a movie
called Ditch Day Massacre that’s due in 2016 starring Bill Oberst Jr.. That
dude is an ultra-talented madman. Are there any stories you can tell us about
Bill?

PS: Bill Oberst Jr is just simply an amazing actor. One of the most
amazing actors I've ever been lucky enough to work with. He is also a very nice
person in real life, very interesting, very kind, but the moment the camera
rolls and the director yells action, the gloves are off (or actually on in this
particular case!) and he instantly transforms into the most terrifying of
villains. He is so great, he literally becomes the character before your very
eyes, and there is no breaking of that reality until the director calls cut!

TMS: The last couple years have seen an awesome resurgence in
independent horror. What have been your favorites? Also, where do you see the
genre heading in the next few years?

PS: I have so many, but I really adore slasher flicks as I think I may
have mentioned already. I like films like The Collector and The Collection,
the Saw movies, the Hostel movies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, some of Rob
Zombie’s flicks like Devil’s Rejects as well as a lot of classic horror, and
films by David Cronenberg, David Lynch, John Carpenter, early Peter Jackson
splatter films . Some more recent films
I’ve liked include You’re Next, VHS,The House of the Devil, and It Follows, There’s so many more. I just saw Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s What We
Do in the Shadows finally the other night, which I thought was a lot of fun.
It really made me want to go back home to New Zealand just to visit the ‘Big K’
or ‘Big Kumara’ which is the bar the vampires go to in the film that I went to
a fair bit back in the day when I was 18 or 19!

TMS: Anything else you want to tell us about? Where can we find you
online and what else is coming up in the world of Pandie Suicide?

PS: For sure! You can find me online on Twitter and Instagram at
@pandiesuicide or the official Massacre Twitter and Instagram at
@massacremovie, and you can also watch the teaser trailer for Massacre if a bit
of blood and violence sounds good to you right here: https://youtu.be/khiecMAvjnU

I have quite a few things coming up, including some projects of my
own that I’m working on right now which are a feature based on Massacre,
another short titled Blood Bath and a TV show I’m developing titled Teeth.